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| The Newsletter of the High Street Hill Association | December 2010 |
Join your neighbors
Christmas Eve
Caroling on the Green
led by
Cornelia McMurtrie
December 24 at 5:45PM
Please bring family and friends
and a wind-protected candle
If you find yourself doing a double take at a familiar face peering out from a storefront window, it might be the captivating image of Martin Luther King, Jr set in a wonderful poster design by Pill Hill neighbor Kristin Leader. "Keeping the Promise," Brookline's official townwide MLK, Jr celebration, will be held on Sunday, January 9 (note: not on MLK Day Jan 17) at 3 pm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and is free and open to the public. The event will feature awardwinning civil rights author and Tufts History Professor Peniel E. Joseph, performances by PALS Children's Chorus, the Winiker Band and the Brookline High School Jazz Band, as well as readings by students from the Steps to Success program. BHS faculty member Malcolm Cawthorne will serve as Master of Ceremonies.
At its most recent monthly meeting the HSHA board voted to send a note of thanks to the Board of Selectmen for their recent thoughtful debate and careful analysis of the complicated and challenging questions around the Green Dog Program and fees. Although nobody likes to pay for something that has been free, the fee is a justified, equitable and well-devised method of covering those costs associated with a specific park user group, their exclusive use of a park for certain hours, and the additional wear-and-tear beyond that of normal park use.
All non-school sports users of the parks have had to pay and now it's time for dog owners to contribute. A Park Ranger, funded by the new fees, will help ensure the success of the program as well as ensure benefits to all park users. The program's importance is confirmed every day at Downes Field by neighborhood camaraderie and happy dogs.
In the last month several fences and postal boxes in our neighborhood have been tagged with graffiti, some of which uses names of breakfast cereals. At the corner of Irving and Upland a defaced green postal storage container was quickly repainted by the Postal Service only to be hit again the next day. It's important that we take a stand against this misplaced form of expression. Please report any graffiti immediately to the police department. They have an online reporting form or you can call them directly. They actively track the individual tags and use the information to develop patterns to help catch the perpetrators.
Over the past several months the Town and our neighborhood have been working together to develop a safety improvement plan for Pond Avenue and High Street (see "Crosswalk Plan" on the HSHA homepage). Despite two hearings, several Transportation Board meetings and one "Road Rally," some residents still feel that the current plan does not adequately address some important concerns. We feel that it's time for residents to voice their opinions one last time before the T-Board makes its final decision, probably at its next meeting in January. Watch the Town Calendar for meeting agenda postings.
Some are the lingering concerns we have heard:
After the HSHA sent a letter that charged, among other things, that proposed raised crosswalks on Pond Avenue might divert commuters to High Street, Transportation Board Chairman Michael Sandman proposed a friendly "road rally" to give the answer. At 8 AM on Wednesday Dec 9 four cars left the Chestnut Street parking lot on Pond Avenue simultaneously and set off to meet at the other end of Pond Ave at Route 9:
Car #1 (Mike Sandman) drove north the full length of Pond Ave to Rte. 9 (2 min 15 sec).
Car #2 (police cruiser driven by Sgt. Thornton) slowed to a rolling stop at each of the 5 existing crosswalks to test what a driver would experience with 5 raised crosswalks (2 min 45 sec).
Car #3 (Rob Daves) followed the cruiser but turned left on Allerton, right on High and right on Walnut at the fire station (4 min 30 sec).
Car #4 (Hugh Mattison) went up Chestnut to High St then right on High and right on Walnut at the fire station (4 min 15 sec).
Drivers of the two cars (#3, #4) who used High said that traffic was unusually light and that they were able to turn right on red at Walnut without having to wait at all, so their times were as short as one could expect for a car diverting over High Street.
Conclusion: At rush hour no one wanting to go inbound on Boylston will divert to High after the first time they try it. The congestion at the bottom of High at Boylston will persuade them to go back to Pond Ave. Equally important, during the rest of the day, there's still a significant disadvantage to diverting - it takes almost twice as long to divert to High Street as it would to go along Pond and come to a rolling stop 5 times.
The Highlight is printed several times a year and is distributed on foot or by bicycle by HSHA Board members and their usually willing family members. If you have a comment or contribution contact the editor, Rob Daves, at 617-566-7334 or robdaves@rcn.com.